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Sunday, June 30, 2013

My brother, Wes, and sister-in-law, Rachel, came a few days this month for their first visit to Luxembourg (although not to Europe, as they've been a few times before).

Before I share some more photos, I'm taking the liberty of a brief aside:

The standard tourist review of Luxembourg (if you can even find one in the first place) is that you don't need more than a couple hours to see all the whole country has to offer. While this is an exaggeration to be sure, I see their point. Still, the sad side to this view (and one which I think we Luxembourg-dwellers take a bit too personally, perhaps) is that people often go on to state that Luxembourg, therefore, is not worth a visit at all.

We've been extremely fortunate to welcome quite a few visitors over the past year. (Thank you, to each and every one of you!) Almost without fail, we hear from them something like, "You know, for a country I really hadn't heard of before and isn't mentioned on any travel sites, it's really quite nice!!"

Well, we like to think so. Our pet theory is that everyone who says dismissive or demeaning things about Luxembourg on a travel website (or says nothing at all...I'm looking at you, Rick Steves) is actually secretly in love with Luxembourg and wants to keep it unspoiled, protecting it from becoming overrun with tourists.

Well, we hope people continue to visit and re-visit. Honestly, I think knowing someone and staying with someone when you visit a place like this makes all the difference.

Even if it's just The Ts.

All that to say, Wes and Rachel seemed to share that sentiment of pleasant surprise by our little adopted country.

(Okay, after seeing their pictures of France from later in their trip, I'm really glad they came here first, but still...)

All right, aside finished. On to some shots from our time hanging out in Lux-ville.

The Church in the Rock, on Pete's route to work

If you come to Luxembourg it is required (I think by law) that you have your picture taken at this bridge in the Grund with the Amazon.eu office in the background

lunch across from the bridge

continuing through town

the Casemates

that's Uncle Wes and Nephew James in the crow's nest

Aunt Rachel and Niece Daphne on the turtle's back

Pick-up game with random 10 year olds. Can I just say this is so my brother and so my husband?

meeting for traditional Luxembourgish food after work

this menu item is called "various Luxembourgish specialties"

One more note about eating at a traditional Luxembourgish restaurant - we hadn't eaten here since we first arrived in Luxembourg. After a year of eating lunch at Luxembourgish school three days a week, it was really fun to hear the kids exclaim, wide-eyed, "Hey! I eat that at school!" as each of our dishes came out.

I'll probably do one more post of our mini-excursion to Vianden when I get around to it.

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Grandpa (or "Opa" in Luxembourgish and German) was here this past weekend between legs of a European business trip. We only got him for one evening and one full day, but we made the most of it. We threw him a mini-belated-birthday party on Friday night.

took him out for Indian food, our standard

ate cake, sang Happy Birthday in Luxembourgish

on Saturday we went to our local park for ice cream and to play

Saturday evening was the annual Night Marathon in Luxembourg city. We missed it by a couple of weeks when we moved here last year. I mentioned on Facebook that the marathon covers the majority of the city, owing to the fact that Luxville is so small*, and that the route just happens to pass by our apartment. So we hung out on the front balcony until the runners started coming by.

As more runners came through, the kids went down to get in on the high-fiving action.

James hasn't quite figured out what lefty high-fivers are supposed to do

figured it out eventually - but now his little classmate behind him has the same problem

We let the kids stay up until we saw a friend who was running the race come by around 9:30pm, and then sent them to bed (Daphne in tears!)

A short but memorable weekend.

*A marathon is 42 km. The entire country of Luxembourg is 82 km x 57 km.

About Me

This is our family blog (since 2008) that sort of merged into a Luxembourg blog when we moved here in May 2012. We are not technically "expats" - more like "immigrants" as we are here indefinitely with Pete's job at Amazon, and the kids are immersed in Luxembourgish public school. As aspiring minimalists, we try to live simply, enjoying the present and each other. Our European adventures are small and simple, our entertainment thresholds quite low, and we like it that way.

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